chickledupickle

Thanks for the warning, but as I mentioned, its not really an issue now I realise we don't get invoiced until the autumn, by then we will have been living over there for a while anyway (hopefully!).

This is really helpful yes thanks, I can stop worrying now!  The house is definitely uninhabitable at the moment!  But hopefully we will be moving/doing it up in the very near future so I'm not gonna try and claim back a few months.  We will be ready to make the payment in the Autumn then. Thanks again!

We bought a house last July in Ariege and paid the solicitors the proportion of the tax fonciere from the date of us buying the house until the end of the year for them to reimburse the seller.  I'd assumed we would get a bill for 2013 at some point, but haven't received anything yet.  We have a neighbour checking our post box in France also.  The house is unfurnished and uninhabited currently so I assume tax d'habitation isn't yet payable until we move hopefully in July.  However, I don't want to 'assume' anything, don't want to incur any late charges and have no knowledge of any of the systems, so was just wondering if someone could tell me when bills are usually received and any advice on how to sort it out if it seems something is wrong![8-)]

Hi all, hope someone can help.  I have been trying to find out whether or not the business we intend to run should be registered as a hotel, or whether we can get away with Chambre D'hote status.  We will only have 3 rooms (1 x double and 2 x dorms sleeping 6 each that can be reconfigured to family rooms).  Our intention was to run a hostel type accomodation, but can't find any reference to this kind of thing on any of the regulation type websites.  It seems that we can fit the criteria for Chambre D'hote mostly, ie, no more than 5 rooms/15 people, include breakfast, dinner at family table etc, but didn't know whether if we rent out 'bed' space rather than 'rooms' as a whole we would be entering the realms of 'hotel' and all the extra regulation that comes with it.  We are not intending to open until Easter 2014 so have time to rethink if necessary! 

Hi Allen, Could you pass on the number you called for the English speaking helpline?  I've seen several quoted and many people saying they don't get through to numbers.  As you were successful, it would be great to get the number. Off to see the house we've just bought in a couple of weeks and want to be prepared for any problems! Thanks! Alex

Hi, again, no its not "1000 years of annoying the french", it was definitely more about how the english behave from a french perspective, rather than a french/anglo history. Oh well, I will keep searching.

Thanks loads, will have a look into it x

I am sure I read in a Living France magazine a long time ago a recommendation for a book that was written about the English from a French point of view and subsequently gave an interesting and funny insight into the French way of life. Does this ring any bells with anyone??